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Cup with Four Faces
600–1000
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
The identity of the four, wide-eyed faces on this cup is unknown. Equally mysterious is the cup’s function. It seems too small to be used for drinking beer at the feasts the Wari sponsored to put others in their debt. The size may suggest the cup was used in more intimate circumstances, perhaps to make libations to sacred forces that animated the ancient landscape.
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Details
- Title: Cup with Four Faces
- Date Created: 600–1000
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 9.5 x 9.2 cm (3 3/4 x 3 5/8 in.)
- Provenance: (Probably André Emmerich, Inc.), Mr. and Mrs. Robert Spitzer, New York City, Sotheby’s New York, Auction (November 18, lot 13A), Merrin Gallery, New York, NY, American Private Collector, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Stone
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.169
- Medium: Stone with shell inlay
- Fun Fact: The inlay is made of spondylus (thorny oyster) shell, a form of wealth in antiquity.
- Department: Art of the Americas
- Culture: Central Andes, Wari people
- Credit Line: Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Collection: AA - Andes
- Accession Number: 2019.169
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